Across the world, urbanization has created and redefined the concept of citizenship. Often in the process of this re-definition, new formations and identities emerge not only in cooperative forms but in conflictual patterns. The Nigerian state and society not only share these characteristics but are deeply divided not just along political lines but economically and more importantly culturally.
Urban formations have also toed the line of these divisions and gone a long way in determining governance processes and political outcomes. In this process of urban formations and reconfigurations, identity clusters emerge. These clusters have become centers of power and influence and consequently determined policy outcomes and nature and structure of not only governance but political alignments. They have also become lunch-pads for cooperation and conflicts.
This paper
attempts to interrogate the concept of urbanization and the phenomenon of
citizenship, their power relations, and strategies employed to achieve harmony
and cooperation in an urban society that is deeply divided culturally,
religiously, politically and economically. It will also seek to explain how
indigene-settler phenomenon has determined urban electoral and policy outcomes
and strategies adopted to ensure accommodation and harmonious co-existence in
selected Nigeria’s urban centers. It will furthermore make an impact evaluation
of these strategies with a view to determining the extent of success and
failures.
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